Knitted pile fabric



Nov. 26, 1963 I w. w. ARTZT 3,111,829

I KNITTED FILE FABRIC Filed Match 22, 1960 F/Gf M f c i.

INVENTOR. WILL/AM w. ARTZT ATTQRNEY United States Patent 3,111,829 KNETTED FILE FABRKC William Waiter Artzt, 116 E. 63th St, New York, N.Y. Filed Mar. 22, 1960, Ser. No. 16,810 3 Claims. (Cl. 66-194) This invention relates generally to pile or terry cloth fabrics, and more particularly is directed to a knitted pile fabric and to the method of producing the same.

An object of the invention is to produce a pile fabric capable of stretching in both the transverse and longitudinal directions, so that such fabric can be made into garments of a single size to fit wearers of different sizes. More particularly, the fabric embodying the invention is adapted for use in infants and childrens garments so that, as the child grows, the garment stretches in both the transverse and longitudinal directions of the fabric to comfortably conform to the increased size of the wearer.

Another object is to provide a fabric of the described character which can be knit on a standard knitting machine set, in the conventional manner, for the knitting of a looped pile or terry fabric.

Another object is to provide a fabric of the described character which has a relatively small rate of shrinkage following the finishing thereof, and which will retain its shape and transverse and longitudinal stretch characteristices during repeated machine washings.

Still another object is to provide a pile or terry cloth fabric of the described character having a random arrangement of loops of different lengths, thereby to give the face of the fabric a shaggy appearance which is characteristic of poodle type fabrics.

In accordance with an aspect of the invention, a pile fabric is knitted with a base of stretch nylon yarn, while the face side of the fabric has uneven loops of other yarn. Any suitable natural or synthetic yarn may be used for the face side of the fabric, but cotton yarn is preferred. In order to effect the unevenness of the loops of cotton yarn at the face of the fabric, the knitting of the latter on a standard knitting machine, preferably a spring needle knitting machine, set to knit looped pile or terry fabric is accomplished with a bur having successive blades of different gauges and sizes. The unevenness of the loops produced with such a bur is accentuated by applying a very high tension to the yarn which forms the loops, while the stretch nylon yarn is fed with practically no tension at all.

In accordance with another feature of the invention, the tendency of the variations in the stretch and recoverability of the stretch nylon yarn to affect the evenness of the base fabric is avoided by feeding the stretch nylon yarn and the cotton yarn at alternate feeds of the knitting machine, and by feeding yarn which is twisted inthe opposite directions at the successive stretch nylon yarn feeds and at the successive cotton yarn feeds, so that the successively fed left and right hand twisted stretch nylon yarns become twisted together as do the successively fed left and right hand twisted cotton yarns.

In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, the knitted fabric is subjected to a shrinking operation which very substantially reduces the dimensions of the fabric while correspondingly increasing the tightness of the knit, and the stretch nylon yarn is then set by a heating step, thereby to provide the longitudinal stretchability of the fabric.

The above, and other objects, features and advantages, of the invention will be' apparent in the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment thereof which is to be read in connection with the accompanying drawing forming a part hereof, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of a section of pile fabric embodying the present invention and shown greatly en- 3J1 L82 Patented Nov. 26, 1963 larged to more clearly illustrate the inter-knitting of the stretch nylon yarn forming the base of the fabric and the yarn forming the pile or loops thereof; and

FIG. 2 shows a stitch bur having blades of different gauges and sizes to produce a pile fabnic having uneven loops in accordance with the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1 in detail, it will be seen that the knitted fabric embodying the present invention, as there illustrated, is composed of a plurality of threads or yarns Ill) and 12, the yarn 19 forming the ground or base of the fabric being of stretch nylon, while the yarn 12 forms the loops at the face side of the fabric and is of dyed yarn, which is preferably cotton.

In FIG. 1, the successive courses of the fabric are designated by the reference characters A, B, C and D, and the interlocked stitches formed of the stretch nylon yarn It) in adjacent courses cooperate to provide the successive wales of the fabric designated by the reference numerals 1, 2, 3, 4i, 5, d and 7.

In knitting the fabric embodying the present invention on a standard knitting machine, the latter is set in the conventional manner to knit a looped pile or terry cloth fabric, in which the cotton yarn 12 forms the desired loops at the face side of the fabric. As shown in FIG. 1, the cotton yarn 12 fed in each course of the fabric forms loops in alternate wales. Thus, in course A, the cotton yarn 12 forms loops only in the wales 1, 3, 5 and '7, whereas, in course B, the cotton yarn 12 forms loops only in courses 2, 4, and 6.

In accordance with the present invention, the loops formed of the cotton yarn are of different lengths. For example, in course A, the loops of the cotton yarn 12 appearing in wales 1 and 5 are relatively long, while the loops formed from the cotton yarn in each course are obtained by employing a stitch bur having blades of different gauges and sizes. Thus, as shown in FIG. 2, a stitch bur intended for use in a standard knitting machine for the production of a fabric embodying the present invention includes the usual body 14 having blades projecting therefrom, with the blades 16 having relatively large nibs being alternated with the blades 18 having relatively small nibs, so as to produce the desired relatively long loops and relatively short loops, respectively.

in order to accentuate the variations in the lengths of the loops of cotton yarn, the cotton yarns 12 are preferably fed to the knitting machine under a very high tension, whereas the stretch nylon yarns 10 which are interknitted in order to form the ground of the fabric, are fed under practically no tens-ion at all.

Since there are variations in the stretch and recoverability of the stretch nylon yarns 1i) and these variations will affect the evenness of the ground of the fabric, the looped pile or terry cloth fabric is, in accordance with the present invention, from stretch nylon and cotton yarns having opposite twists in each of the courses, and reversed twists in the successive courses. Thus, for example, in the section of the fabric illustrated in FIG. 1, the nylon yarn 10 and the cotton yarn 12 fed to the knitting machine to form the course A will have right and left hand twists, respectively, while the nylon and cotton yarns 1i) and 12 fed to the needles of the machine to form the next succeeding course B will have left and night hand twists, respectively.

With the foregoing arrangement, the oppositely twisted yarns will intertwine and become practically united.

After the looped pile fabric has been knitted in the manner described above, it is placed in net bags in a tum bling washing machine, dyed, extracted and tumble-dried. Then the nylon yarns are set by heating the fabric at a temperature of 350 F. This finishing procedure effects very substantial shrinkage of the fabric, for example, to

approximately 50% of its Original dimensions, so that no fu ther shrinkage will take place when a garment made of a fabric which is knited and finished in the manner described above is subjected to repeated machine or hand laundering.

After the fabric has been dried and heat set, it is folded by hand. If the fabric is subjected to machine folding or finished in a tube on a circular calendar machine, part of its longitudinal stretch will be taken out so that, after the marker is made and the cloth is spread on the cutting table, there will be an indeterminate sprin -back to its normal condition. However, by employing hand folding of the fabric, none of the longitudinal stretch is taken out and, further, the loops of the fabric are not flattened. Since the fabric needs to be hand folded, it is desirable that the fabric be finished in pieces that weigh no more than eight pounds each.

in order to obtain various widths and yields, it is necessary to use different yarn counts and iachines having different widths. Thus, if it is desired to obtain a piece of fabric corresponding to that normally produced on a twenty-eight gauge machine, a fabric is loosely knit on a fourteen gauge machine and then shrunk, in the manner described above, to a condition where it will have the characteristics of a twenty-eight gauge fabric. Similarly, if it is desired to provide a piece of cloth having a finished width of twenty-five inches, the cloth or fabric is knitted on a fifty inch machine and then shrunk to the desired twenty-five inch width.

Further by Way of example, it is to be noted that 36% of the weight of a fabric embodying the present invention may be formed of 70/ l stretch nylon yarn forming the ground of the fabric, While the remaining 64% of the weight of the fabric is represented by 4-0/1 dyed cotton yarn forming the loops, but it is to be noted that these yarn sizes may be varied in order to produce fabrics of different weights.

Although the knitted fabric illustrated in FIG. 1 has the loops formed by the cotton yarns l2 interknitted with the yarns 10 forming the ground of the fabric, the smooth cotton yarns 12 can be replaced by either heavy or thin loop yarns or boucles which are laid in loosely, rather than being interknitted, and, by reason of the relatively great shrinkage effected during finishing of the fabric in the manner described above, such loosely laid in loops Will be held tight in the ground of the fabric.

Although an illustrative embodiment of the fabric and method embodying the present invention have been described in detail herein with reference to the accompanying drawing, it is to be noted that the invention is not limited to that precise embodiment, and that various changes and modifications may be effected therein without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention, except as defined in the appended claims.

W hat is claimed is:

l. A knitted pile fabric comprising a plain ground of iinterknitted loops of stretch nylon yarns, and loops of a different, substantially less stretchable yarn interknitted with said loops of the plain ground in each course of the fabric and appearing at every other Wale of the related course, said loops of a different yarn being at the face side of the fabric and having varying lengths greater than the lengths of said loops of the plain ground.

2. A knitted pile fabric comprising a plain ground of interlznitted loops of stretch nylon yarn, and loops of a different, substantially less stretchable yarn interknitted with said plain ground loops in each course of the fabric, said loops of a different yarn having varying lengths greater than the lengths of said plain ground loops, the nylon and the different yarns in each course having opposite twists and the nylon yarns in successive courses and the different yarns in successive courses having opposite twists.

3. A knitted pile fabric as in claim 2; wherein said loops of the different yarn are located only at every other Wale of each course.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 648,581 Benger May 1, 1900 715,457 Burson Dec. 9, 1902 2,000,176 Katzenmoyer May 7, 1935 2,009,361 Lawson July 23, 1935 2,094,180 Mishcon Sept. 28, 1937 2,098,303 Moses Nov. 9, 1937 2,154,155 Fleisher Apr. 11, 1939 2,220,428 Shager Nov. 5, 1940 2,284,434 Smith May 26, 1942 2,771,757 Burleson Nov. 27, 1956 2,771,758 Weller Nov. 27, 1956 2,832,125 Knohl Apr. 29, 1958 2,944,412 Rice July 12, 1960 2,974,508 Westrnoreland Mar. 14, 1961 

1. A KNITTED PILE FABRIC COMPRISING A PLAIN GROUND OF INTERKNITTED LOOPS OF STRETCH NYLON YARNS, AND LOOPS OF A DIFFERENT, SUBSTANTIALLY LESS STRETCHABLE YARN INTERKNITTED WITH SAID LOOPS OF THE PLAIN GROUND IN EACH COURSE OF THE FABRIC AND APPEARING AT EVERY OTHER WALE OF THE RELATED COURSE, SAID LOOPS OF A DIFFERENT YARN BEING AT THE FACE SIDE OF THE FABRIC AND HAVING VARYING LENGTHS GREATER THAN THE LENGTHS OF SAID LOOPS OF THE PLAIN GROUND. 